Boxing: Adrien Broner, Gervonta Davis Training Together For First Time

Four-division world champion Adrien Broner and unbeaten former champion Gervonta Davis will be in action this Saturday in featured bouts on Showtime.

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The two are training together for the first-time under the watchful eye of Kevin Cunningham, a former St. Louis police officer, in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Broner meets former welterweight champion Jessie Vargas in a 12-round bout in the main event from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, while Davis collides with Jesus Cuellar for the WBA 130-pound super featherweight title.

This is Broner’s first fight since suffering a decision loss to Mikey Garcia last July. He had won three in a row prior to the setback and owns a career record of 33-3 with a no-contest.

“I’ve known Coach Cunningham since my amateur days. We used to go up to St. Louis all the time and fight in his tournaments, on his shows. I have even fought for St. Louis in the Ringside Tournament. It was a great experience,” Broner said. “Coach Mike stopped being a coach and started being more of a friend. I needed him to keep being my coach. I need someone to keep me in line. Don’t get me wrong, he’ll always be like a father figure but when it comes to training and my career. I needed a change.”

Davis (19-0) has stopped 18 of his 19 opponents, including an August eighth-round knockout of Francisco Fonseca.

“I was actually going to go to Colorado to train, but Adrien invited me to come down here to West Palm Beach to check out the camp. He said I should come to Florida to train with him and Kevin. So I came down, I saw Kevin’s routine and I really liked it,” Davis said. “There were a lot of distractions in Baltimore and I think they were a problem for me. I needed to straighten my head and focus on the things I have to work on. It was time to set my camp somewhere else.”

For Cunningham, this is another in a list of big-time fights he has worked.

“I’m known to be a stern and disciplined trainer, coach, and teacher. I’ve got a military and police background, so I don’t play a lot of games. We’re serious and we’re about business,” he said. “When Broner made the decision to come with me, I knew that he was ready to take his career seriously because he knows what it’s like being here with me. He has to be about business, he has to be serious, and he has to be focused and disciplined. He made the choice to have me take over his training and take the lead as his head trainer and that’s what he’s getting when he’s dealing with me.”